Titan
by LunaPadma
Summary: Alex Carpenter won't apologize for joining the Titans.
1. Part 1: Titanomachy

On the morning of his tenth birthday, Alex Carpenter makes a friend.

She says her name is Georgia, that she's nine and that she ran away from her school where a teacher did something she didn't explain. Her mother is a goddess, just like his, and she sees the same world he does.

She's cold and wet and she looks like a drowned puppy. And he decides he could stand to have a little more company.

"D'you want to come with me?" he asks.

She nods gratefully and follows him to his safe house.

* * *

It's Georgia's eleventh birthday, and Alex steals a cupcake just for her. He even takes a candle, so she can have a birthday wish.

She wishes that the Olympians and their legacies would be utterly obliterated. He doesn't understand why she hates the gods so much, but he lets her be. He doesn't ask why.

That night, she surprises him by telling him.

"I told you once that a teacher attacked me," she says softly, staring into their tiny campfire. She already sounds close to tears.

"Gia, you don't have to tell me," Alex protests. She still sometimes looks like the drowned puppy he found nearly two years ago, and he finds it alarming.

She shakes her head. "You deserve to know. He wasn't my teacher, he was a substitute. Mr. Pard."

"Monster?" Alex guesses. A few of his teachers had turned out to be monsters before he'd run away.

She laughs hollowly. "Worse. Dionysus. He—he asked me to stay after class. Held me down and…" Here she breaks down. Alex doesn't need her to finish to piece together what happened.

"I was _nine,"_ she sobs.

Alex just holds her for a while. He hates them too, now.

And he'll do his best to make sure that her birthday wish comes true.

* * *

A few months later, they run into an older demigod. He says that his name is Luke and that he hates the gods, too.

They share his fire that night. They exchange war stories of monsters they've killed, exaggerating and bluffing, like friends almost.

At the night's end, Luke invites the two of them to join the service of Kronos and have a chance to rip Olympus apart brick by brick.

Georgia accepts for the both of them.


	2. 2

Luke takes them to Louisiana, where he's set up a training camp for both demigods and monsters. There are even a few mortals with the Sight.

Alex is a natural. His mother is Minerva, and his knowledge of strategy makes him the envy of camp.

Georgia isn't a natural. She can't remember the advantages of a sword or a knife. She is completely focused on revenge, on wronging those who wronged her. She cannot see the big picture.

Alex is climbing through the ranks of the Titan Army like a jungle gym, but Georgia's stuck at the bottom.

* * *

When she's thirteen and he's fourteen, a new boy comes to camp. His name is Gideon Virga, and he is the son of Hecate.

He's about as bad with a sword as Georgia is, and they get partnered up frequently for training exercises.

He's funny the same way she is, and they make each other laugh the way she and Alex never did. They start developing inside jokes, and all she has to do is say "green bean", and they'll both fall to the ground in tears.

Alex tries not to feel jealous, because it's good for her to have more friends. She's too closed-off as it is. She's no longer the drowned puppy he met on his tenth birthday. She has a spine and fire in her eyes and a grudge in her heart. She doesn't need his protection. She's a grown-up now, and they're no longer trying to stay alive together for one more day.

But he can't deny that little spark of happiness when she finds him after a particularly grueling training exercise and slots herself under his arm like old times and whispers "You're still my best friend."


	3. 3

Two weeks after Alex's sixteenth birthday, he finds out that Gideon Virga is a spy for the other side.

Lord Kronos dispatches Ethan to deal with Gideon, and Alex goes out to find Georgia. That sort of news shouldn't have to come from anyone else.

He finds her, all right. He finds her unconscious as Gideon Virga holds a knife to her throat and demands safe passage from the training camp.

Alex has never wanted to kill anyone so badly, and that includes Dionysus.

"Release the girl, Virga," Ethan demands. Hostage or no, Georgia's still his sister and he still tries to look out for her.

Gideon roars with laughter. "Oh, no, I'm taking her as my collateral. Who knows what you bastards might try to do to me?"

Alex forces himself to stay back. But she looks so tiny and fragile in his arms and he's suddenly reminded of the morning of his tenth birthday when he found a little girl who looked like a drowned puppy.

Gideon Virga drags Georgia to a nearby pegasus and throws her across its back before jumping on himself. As the pegasus takes off, he calls down to Ethan, "Besides, with you and Carpenter pumping her full of dirty little army secrets, she's worth a hell of a lot to Camp Half-Blood."

He disappears into the sky and Alex is stuck on the ground and he can't look out for her down here.

And that's the worst part.

* * *

Alex spends the rest of the week in a daze. He depends on Georgia more than he realizes and he needs to see her, to know that she's okay.

Their spies report that Dionysus is fighting Typhon, far away from the camp. Alex isn't there for her, but at least _he_ isn't either.

There's a war to be fought and he just keeps thinking that he can't do it without her.

It gets to the point where Ethan calls him in to tell him that the best way to get her back is by defeating the Campers.

Alex _knows_ this. His mother is Minerva, after all.

But that doesn't make the directions easier to follow.

* * *

It takes two weeks from the day Georgia is kidnapped for Alex's rescue mission to be approved, and another week to prepare for it.

Not, of course, that Alex called it a rescue mission. It is called, in fact, an Information Gathering Session Behind Enemy Lines. An IGSBEL.

Alex dyes his blonde hair brown and cuts it short. He puts on a Southern accent and starts responding when people call him Ryan. He practices fighting lefty so that people will think he's a self-trained sword fighter.

And then he is ready.


	4. 4

The sentry atop Half-Blood Hill just before noon on July 12th sees a demigod sprinting for the camp. He's older than most demigods and being chased by three hellhounds.

The sentry blows her whistle to call for reinforcements, but they are too late.

With a final push, the demigod throws himself over the border and into the safe zone of camp. The poor boy looks wobbly and shaky. Gods know how long he has been pursued by those dogs.

"What's your name?" the sentry asks.

"Ryan," the boy says, the slightest twang evident in his voice. "Ryan Tischler."

With those words, he collapses in a dead faint.

Ryan Tischler wakes up in the camp infirmary. A glass of a yellowish liquid sits next to him, which he drinks gratefully.

It tastes like the cupcakes you buy in batches of two dozen at Safeway, with the spongy cake and overly sweet frosting and far too many sprinkles, and it's the best thing he's ever had the pleasure of consuming.

A centaur, Chiron, is waiting for him to wake up. He asks Ryan a few questions—"How old are you?", "How in Poseidon's name did you survive in the real world for sixteen years?", and "You're not a Titan spy, are you?"

The answers are, "Near sixteen", "I run fast", and "Like the team?", which convinces Chiron that Ryan Tischler is who he says he is and not a Titan.

Chiron has no idea how wrong he is.

_Dear Mama,_

_I've made it to camp! I know you were worried about me not fitting in, but never fear. It's like I'm a member of an eighty-eight-person family. After all, we're all cousins in one way or another._

_I've replaced Grandpap's old sword with one from camp. Family heirlooms don't fight as well as the new blades they done have me try out. They told me if I don't like the one they give me, I can try any of the four hundred and thirty seven they have in the Armory! 'Course, some are being used and I can't try out those._

_My new friend Aidan made me a dagger in the forges and promised to teach me how to use it! I guess people make their own weapons all the time, though I don't think most people are very good. Millicent was telling me how really the only not-crap weapons are the ones the Hephaestus cabin makes. It's a really good thing Aidan's in that cabin, right?_

_I'm mostly practicing with the sword though. Most kids use those. Maybe ten kids use daggers, and one really tough girl from the Ares cabin fights with a spear! Some kids told me it's electric! Of course, the Apollo cabin, about twenty kids, only fight with bows and arrows. They're good! One girl can fire an arrow and then split it in midair! Her name's Kayla, but we all call her Katniss._

_The Apollo kids have some incredible arrows! It makes me wish I had the hand-eye coordination to use one so effectively. Michael Yew has a few sonic arrows. Other people use incendiary arrows or exploding ones. One guy even has ones that turn people into cacti!_

_There are some beautiful girls, here. I have my eye on one lady in particular, the sister of a friend. She lives close by, so I'll have to bring her home to meet you next time I visit!_

_I probably won't have time to write again until Tuesday._

_Love you,_

_Ryan_


	5. 5

A few days after his successful entry into camp, Alex is ready to leave. He has the information he needs, now he just needs his best friend.

That night, he sneaks into the Big House and picks the lock on the basement door. It squeaks as it opens, though hopefully not loud enough to wake up anyone.

She's been trapped in the basement for a month, but when she walks out, it's like she never left. "What took you so long?" she whispers. She knows the value of silence.

He shrugs. "Nothing of importance." He leads her out of the Big House carefully, heading for the large pine tree on the hill.

When they're halfway to the border, the alarm goes off. Alex grabs Georgia's arm and takes off for the edges.

They can't make it. They can't make it and they know it but they keep running because they can't stop. They can't give in.

Arrows start to fly. They aren't the explosive ones, thank Titans, but they're still enough to kill a man. He runs faster, serpentine, even though he knows it's useless.

Georgia is outstripping him, no matter how hard she tries not to. He yells, "Go ahead!" They'll catch him, of course, but there's no need for both to be imprisoned.

She gives him the bird, which is her way of saying, "Fuck you, I'm staying."

Then his shoulder explodes with pain and he keeps running just putting one foot in front of the other but Kronos the pain the pain it burns he can't feel his shoulder he just keeps running but it won't stop it just throbs burns hurts like a _mother_.

Georgia grabs his hand and pulls him up the hill, tripping, sliding, stumbling. They can't make it, they _won't_ make it, and yet they must.

Chris Rodriguez is the first to catch up to them. Even in his pain-fogged, delusional state, Alex can see the look in Georgia's eyes that says, _You have betrayed me and my side, and now I will betray you._ She turns around, still moving backwards up the hill, and asks in just a loud enough voice to let all the other pursuers hear, "Where's Mary, Chris? You lose her?"

The question literally freezes Chris in his tracks. For a second, Alex can see the crazy eyes Dannika Peters had come back with after her own trip into the Labyrinth.

In contrast, Georgia is moving faster than ever. By this point, she's practically carrying Alex. The pain is too much, and he lapses into a state of semiconsciousness.

That really ripped Ares girl is the next to reach them, but she doesn't pursue them. Instead, she stops next to the practically-comatose Chris Rodriguez. Alex had heard rumors that they were dating.

Georgia makes it down to the bottom of the hill, where a white van is waiting. The campers are still shooting, but somehow Georgia has remained unscathed. She rips open the door and shoves Alex into the car before swinging herself into the car herself. "Drive!" she yells.

The driver is a new recruit, but he knows how to obey orders. He steps on the gas and leaves Camp Half-Blood behind in a cloud of dust.


	6. 6

Back at the temporary Army headquarters, Alex is rushed to the infirmary, where two children of Apollo pull out the arrow from his shoulder. Georgia insists on watching, on making sure he's okay.

She throws up twice.

Alex makes fun of her for her gag reflex, and she mocks him for his inability to cope with pain.

It's almost like old times, but it isn't. Or, well, it is, but the very old times. When Georgia doesn't talk about what happened before and Alex doesn't want to ask her and scare her away. When all they shared were lighthearted observations and life-or-death battles.

Alex hates it. He's so used to sharing everything with Georgia, it's almost like he never rescued her.

* * *

Finally, he snaps. "What happened at that camp?"

"Nothing!" It's just a bit too loud and fast to be the truth.

"Gia." He uses the nickname deliberately to remind her of their years together. She can tell him anything.

Georgia spins around, and Alex is horrified to see tears in her eyes. "What? What are you going to do about it? Ride in on your big white horse to fix all my problems? I can handle myself, Alex!"

"Georgia, I…" Alex doesn't know what to say. He always thought that you took care of those you loved.

"What do you want me to say, Alex?" she says angrily. "Do you want me to tell you about how one of the three people I trusted kidnapped me? The month I spent locked in a basement? How I tried to escape and Silena Beauregard, _Beauregard_ for God's sake, our fucking spy, turned me in? Would you like to hear about that?"

"_Yes!_" Alex yells. "I want to hear about everything! Of course I do! I want to help. I want to _kill_ Gideon Virga, you know that! I want to kill everyone who hurts you."

Georgia sucker-punches him in the gut. "_That's_ your problem!" she shrieks. "You always have to _fix_ my problems! Spoiler alert, Alex, I'm not the nine-year-old you took under your wing anymore! I can handle myself." She storms off, and Alex is left wondering:

Was it something he did, or something he said?

* * *

"If it were me, I'd probably have cut your balls off," Ethan says. Alex told him the whole story about what had gone down between him and Georgia, figuring that since Ethan was also a child of Nemesis, he might know what would have pissed her off.

"Why?"

"You really don't know?" Ethan asks incredulously. "You lived with a daughter of Nemesis for six years, and you don't know? Dude, I know your mom's Minerva and all, but you're a moron."

"Look, are you going to help me or not?" Alex asks.

"Okay, okay. Do you remember in _The Princess Bride_, how Inigo Montoya waits twenty years so he can kill the man who killed his father?"

Alex hasn't seen _The Princess Bride_ since he was eight. "Vaguely."

"Well, he does. And do you have any idea how pissed he would have been if Wesley or Fezzik had killed the guy who killed his dad?"

"How pissed?"

Ethan thinks for a moment, "Slightly more than Lord Kronos would be if you ran naked through the camp praising Hermes with every step."

Alex has absolutely no trouble picturing Lord Kronos's anger, and he would honestly rather be in the center of a nuclear bomb blast. "Oh."

"That's about how pissed my sister is," Ethan finishes. "You can't fix her problems. Just—no. You gotta let her take her own revenge, or else."

"How do I do that?" Alex asks.

Ethan doesn't answer right away. Finally, he says, "You do nothing. I'll talk to her. Maybe if we watch _The Godfather_ again, she'll forgive you. I mean, you're practically Fredo already."

Alex is pretty sure that's not a compliment.

* * *

Three days later, Georgia finds him at the armory. He's supposed to be taking inventory, but he's playing poker with Ethan instead.

"Hey, stranger," she says.

Alex drops his cards face-up and hugs her.


	7. 7

Lord Kronos decides to attack New York on August 17th and Alex is put in charge of figuring out the best entrance routes into Manhattan.

He dangles _The Princess Andromeda_ just outside of New York as bait, filled with extraneous monsters, demigods, and the like that would just slow down progress. He splits the forces into three and instructs them to attack the weakly guarded entrances, the locations of which would be supplied by Silena Beauregard.

He's going over the final list of "passengers" on the _Andromeda_ and is astonished to see the name "Rowland, Georgia" sandwiched between "Reeve, Michael" and "Roy, Nikki". Only three people had authority enough to change the list. Alex is one, and her brother is the other.

Alex storms into Ethan's office, unintentionally disrupting a meeting between Ethan and Lord Kronos. "Ethan, what the hell?" he yells.

Ethan looks shocked and confused. "Alex, what are you on?" he asks.

Alex throws the list down onto Ethan's desk. "Number fifty-seven," he says. "She's your _sister!_ How could you do that to her?"

It takes Ethan a minute or two to find number fifty-seven, but once he does, he begins to swear loudly.

"If this is regarding the issue of Georgia Rowland, I put her on that list," Lord Kronos interjects. He doesn't speak loudly, but he gets the undivided attention of both boys regardless. "Her martial and strategic skills are not at the requisite levels."

Georgia will never be an expert swordswoman. But, after six years of training, she is competent enough to not belong on the _Andromeda_. And, while her strategies are generally shit, she doesn't need to know how to plan to attack.

"My lord," Alex says, kneeling at Lord Kronos's feet. "Georgia Rowland is your most loyal soldier. She is the most determined person I've ever met. She'd fight to the death for you. She will—"

"More loyal than you, Alex?"

Alex nods. "Yes, my lord."

Lord Kronos considers this. "This girl, this _nobody_ means that much to you?"

Alex nods. "She's my best friend, my lord. I'd do anything for her."

Lord Kronos nods. "You were to march at my right hand, Alex."

Alex swallows. He has no idea where this is going. "Yes, my lord."

Lord Kronos takes a pen and crosses Georgia's name off the list. "You will not go to New York, Alex. Ethan will be my right hand."

"My lord?" Ethan and Alex ask at the same time. Ethan sounds shocked and vaguely horrified, while Alex is only relieved. He doesn't care where will be going, as long as Georgia isn't going anywhere on the _Andromeda_.

Lord Kronos hands him a plane ticket. Kronos must have been planning this, but Alex has absolutely no idea why. "I am putting you in charge of the Othrys defense," he says. "You'll fly to California tonight." He waves his hand, and Alex is dismissed.

Alex has a feeling that he just walked into a trap, but he'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Georgia comes in just as he's throwing a few pairs of boxers and jeans into a duffel. "What are you doing?" she asks.

"I'm packing," Alex snaps. He hates the West Coast. He hates California. He hates the Bay Area. He hates the Romans. And he really, really hates the Giants.

The team, though he's not exactly a fan of the children of Gaia, either.

"Yes," Georgia says, confused. "I can see that you're packing. Why are you packing?"

"Kronos is putting me in charge of the Othrys defense," Alex explains, looking for his shield. He finds it under his bed and collapses it into a square of metal the size of a matchbox before stowing it in his bag.

"Why would he do that? You're our best strategist," Georgia says. "I mean, Othrys is important and all, but it's more of a task for Ethan."

Alex shrugs. "It's a long story." He doesn't want her to freak out. He should let her fight her own battles, but that one she wouldn't have won.

Georgia's eyes narrow. "I've got time."

"I was going over the _Andromeda_'s passenger list and your name was on it," Alex says quickly. "I went to see Ethan, because he's the only other demigod with the clearance to change the list, but he was meeting with Lord Kronos, and he didn't put your name on there, Lord Kronos did. Lord Kronos took your name off the list in exchange for me leading the Othrys defense, I don't know why."

Georgia takes a minute to process this. "Oh," she says quietly.

"Please don't be mad," Alex pleads. "I didn't have much time. They're boarding the ship day after tomorrow and maybe I didn't think or anything, but you're not going on that ship and that's all that matters, right? I really hate it when we aren't speaking."

Georgia shakes her head. "I'm not mad at you. I'm just pissed you're going to California without me. I know how much you hate California."

Alex practically giggles with relief. "Oh, thank Titans."

"Grow some _cojones_, big boy," Georgia says. "Because if you die out there, I'm cutting them off."

Alex snorts. "That's comforting, Gia." A horn honks in the distance. It's his ride to JFK Airport. "Don't die out here," he says. "I don't do well when you're not here."

"No shit," Georgia says. She hugs him tightly. "Come back, okay?"

"I will," Alex promises. "I swear."


	8. 8

Alex hates Romans. That probably means he hates himself, but whatever.

He hates the Romans. He hates Othrys. He hates Krios. And he still really hates the Giants.

Romans at Othrys allied with Krios wearing orange and black jerseys on a regular basis? Hell. Utter hell.

They call him the Greek behind his back, even though he's a Roman just like them. And fine, so he grew up more Greek than Roman, but, honestly, that's just proof of nature versus nurture as opposed to actual differences between the demigods. He and Georgia used to debate that.

Alex isn't close to anyone at Othrys, and it sucks. He spends all of his time in his room, planning strategy after strategy, from the basics to "What if the Romans attack in a hot-air balloon?" and "How to cope with antiaircraft missiles".

After day four, even he can no longer dream up absurd situations, so he begins plotting world domination with various countries as a base. He gets through Germany, Cuba, Kuwait, Iran, Russia, the United States, and Moldova before he gets bored with that game, too.

Then the Romans attack.

* * *

Alex doesn't remember the fight. He never does. He could tell you every perfect square number between one and seven thousand, but he can't tell you what happened during his most recent sparring session with Ethan.

Whereas Georgia is certain that Washington, D.C. is the capital of Maryland, but can recite every parry and block from a fight three years ago.

All he remembers is that none of his soldiers stick to his strategies and Krios exploding in a pool of light. The force of Krios' combustion sends him spinning against the wall with enough force to knock him unconscious.

This probably means his side lost.

That _sucks._


	9. Part 2: Gigantomachy

When Alex wakes up, there's a blond guy in his face. "Ray," he says, "This one's alive."

_No shit_, Alex wants to say. _Was it the pulse that gave it away, or the fact that I just blinked?_

Ray, a tall Hispanic girl with long black hair, comes over. "Really? I thought that when Krios died, it wiped out just about everyone on his side?"

The blonde guy shrugs. "I guess not. What should we do with him?"

"Kill him."

"What?" the blond guy asks. Alex is liking the blonde guy a lot more than Ray. As a general rule, people prefer people who don't want to kill them.

"He's a Titan, Jason!"

Alex would love to defend himself right about now, but he can't move any part of his body. His legs are buried under a marble column, and his right arm is at a very strange angle.

"Ray, the poor guy just smashed through a wall. I really doubt he's gonna attack anyone."

"You can't leave your enemies alive. It's not Roman."

Jason shrugs. "Well, what if I take him as a slave?" Ray is speechless. "Well, it's quite Roman of me, isn't it?"

Ray sighs. "Slavery is illegal as per the thirteenth—"

"Serving out a term as an indentured servant to the Roman State for committing war crimes and high treason," Jason counters.

Ray laughs. "Whatever, Jason. Do whatever. I don't care."

* * *

They shove enough ambrosia down Alex's throat to barbeque a heifer, so he's not entirely sure how he's still breathing. It probably helps he threw up almost half of it.

For the record, the food of the gods does not taste as good coming up as it did going down.

Alex's legs are completely shattered, but the children of Apollo tell him that they will eventually straighten out. Since they fought on different sides, Alex isn't sure he believes them.

But since they carried him from Mount Tam to the Caldecott Tunnel, he figures they can't be all bad.

Jason walks with him, even though it must seriously piss him off to go that slow. He talks a lot, about random things. Like the sister he thinks he had, or his dream girl. Weirdly enough, his dream girl is Native American. Alex doesn't want to say anything, but he kind of feels like assigning a race to a dream individual is racist. If anyone said, "My dream girl is white," they'd get arrested or beaten or something.

Once they get back to Camp Jupiter, Jason asks the question Alex is dreading.

"Why'd you even join the Titans anyway? You would have done really well at Camp."

Alex almost wants to tell him everything. About his father, about the years he wandered the West Coast.

About Georgia.

He bites his tongue. Some things shouldn't be shared.

"Why'd you even join the Titans?"

Alex shrugs.


	10. Part 2: 2

Two nights after they get back to Camp Jupiter, Alex steals five hundred dollars from Jason, hitchhikes to the Oakland airport, and buys a one-way ticket to New York.

Five and a half hours later, he's the first one off the plane, the combination of an accidental upgrade by the gate agent and a sympathetic stewardess who might have been an _empousa_.

It doesn't take much time before Alex is in the lobby of the Empire State Building, begging the guy working the front desk to let him up.

"Kid, there's no six hundredth floor," the guy says.

"I don't need the six hundredth floor," Alex says. "I need to talk to Nemesis."

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No," Alex says.

"Can't help you, kid," the guy says. "And even if I could, Nemesis isn't here. She's in Sicily."

"Why is she in Sicily?" Alex asks.

"It's that whole Mafia thing," the guy explains. "She always goes there when something happens to her kids."

Alex can't help thinking that he really should have watched _The Godfather_ last time Ethan suggested it for movie night. But right now, he has bigger problems to think about. Like how Alex only knows two children of Nemesis, and the doorkeeper implied that something bad happened to both of them.

"What happened to her kids?" Alex asked, holding his breath.

"How the hell should I know? Do I look like her personal secretary? Beat it, kid."

Alex beats it.

* * *

It takes Alex an unreasonable amount of time to find a pay phone. And it takes him even longer to find change.

Once he has a few quarters sitting in his palm, he plugs them into the derelict machine and dials a number he never expected to need.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end asks groggily. It is uncomfortably early in California, but Alex has bigger problems than the time difference.

"Jason? It's me. I'm in New York."

* * *

Jason makes him promise to go immediately to the airport and buy a ticket back to Oakland, but Alex has some business to attend to first.

He buys a can of spray paint from the convenience store and writes in an alleyway three Greek letters. Sigma. Sigma. Lambda. Some Still Live.

It's a hope and a prayer and a rallying call and a battle cry all in one.

* * *

The flight back to San Francisco is longer. Also, Alex thinks he's getting claustrophobic, though that might just be because he's stuck in the middle seat between two very overweight individuals with three crying babies between them.

Alex hates small children.

He absolutely sees no reason why they should be allowed on airplanes. If you ask him, there should be baby and non-baby flights, the same way they used to have smoking and nonsmoking.

Also, all flights should be non-baby.

Jason is waiting for him at the arrivals gate. Alex doesn't exactly know why. It's not like they're friends or anything. Alex is a Titan, after all, and Jason is decidedly not.

Once they're in the car (driven by one of those old retired people who live in New Rome) Jason asks, "Did you find what you needed in New York?"

"I don't know," Alex says. "She wasn't there."

"Who wasn't there?"

"My best friend."

Thankfully, Jason drops the subject.


	11. Part 2: 3

Alex almost starts to like Camp Jupiter in the weeks that follow.

Jason and his friends are actually nice to him. Reyna's still a bitch, but he can ignore her now. He even likes Terminus, the OCD guardian spirit of New Rome.

"Could I bring a steak knife through the barrier?" Alex asks.

Terminus sighs. "Are you plotting murder again?"

"I'm just wondering where "weapon" stops and "tool" starts," Alex says innocently. That's mostly true. But another large part of it is that he really, really likes antagonizing Terminus.

"Just like your mother," Terminus mutters. "No respect for the Gods, no respect for tradition. Rules are _rules_, young man!"

"My mom?" Alex asks. Honestly, he doesn't like thinking about her. She could have at least bothered to explain things when his dad threw him out, instead of leaving him wandering and confused throughout the Pacific Northwest. "What about her?"

"I remember the good old days, when we used to wall up the virgins that broke their oaths," Terminus reminisces.

Alex really doesn't want to think about his parents' sex life, but he feels like he has to defend it. "My parents never had sex," he protested. "My dad used to bitch about it all the time. He said that of all the brain children Minerva could've bestowed, he would have preferred one that wasn't breathing."

"Still!" Terminus says, sticking his marble nose in the air. "Virgin goddesses should not be having children!"

Alex doesn't want to talk about his mom's virginity anymore. He has to wonder if this is what it was like for Jesus, always having to defend his mom like this. "What if I made a shiv inside of Rome? Would it vaporize once I finished making it?"

* * *

"I don't know that much about you," Jason says suddenly one day.

"No," Alex agrees. "You don't."

"I don't even know who your godly parent is."

"You know, there's a reason for that," Alex points out. "I'm a Titan. I hate my mother."

"Your mother?"

_Shit_. "And my father. I hate my parents."

"You don't look like a child of Ceres, and you're too ugly to be a child of Venus…" Jason muses. "What are you, a son of Nemesis?"

Alex flinches like Jason kicked him. "Minerva, okay?" he says. "I'm Minerva's spawn."

Jason shakes his head. "No. You can't—Minerva's a virgin goddess; she doesn't have children. That would be—she just can't break her oath like that." Alex wants to hit him. Jason has grown up in a tiny town with the same people and has never actually been out in the real world enough to realize that things don't always go according to myth.

"That's a little hypocritical, isn't it? Considering _your_ dad?" Alex asks. He picks up a rock and throws it as hard as he can at the Pomerian Line. The rock vaporizes and Terminus gives him a dirty look.

"That's different."

"How? Is it different because your dad is Zeus and therefore doesn't have to be bound by silly things like oaths? Or is it different because my mother's a woman?" Alex asks angrily.

"Jupiter. My father's Jupiter," Jason says. Alex ignores him.

"Well, I'm sorry that my mother's sexual activity displeases you, your highness, but that's what happened. My mom had a thing for my dad, and I'm the Oops Baby that followed." Alex knows he shouldn't have answered Jason like that, but he doesn't regret a word of it.

And Jason's face as Alex storms off is priceless.

* * *

The next day, Jason is gone.

Alex is the prime suspect and, by extension, Public Enemy Number One. Because it's _so_ likely that the kid in the wheelchair overpowered and kidnapped the six-foot praetor son of Jupiter.

Not that he's surprised. After all, nobody's forgotten that Alex is a Titan, or his unexplained disappearance a few weeks ago. Or his fight with Jason the day before.

But "innocent until proven guilty" is still a thing and godsdammit is it too much to ask for some evidence? Circumstantial evidence is great and all, but it can't be used to try a case.

No. His mistake. This isn't America, this is _Rome-World_.

Though Alex is pretty sure he still deserves a trial.


	12. Part 2: 4

"Alex, can I talk to you in here for a second?" Reyna asks.

For a moment, Alex is speechless. Reyna never calls him Alex, and she's never been this nice to him. Ever. Normally, it would have been: "You! In here! NOW!"

He follows her into her office, where—much to his surprise—Octavian is waiting. Reyna hates Octavian even more than she hates Alex. Alex can see where this is headed, and it's not pretty.

"What do you know about Jason's disappearance?" Reyna asks.

Was he being interrogated? Really? "Um…it happened."

Reyna's gold dog, the one Alex calls Earl, snaps at him. "Oh, and I wasn't involved."

Earl and Matilda (the silver one) growl, but they don't attack. Reyna, taking note of the dogs' behavior, nods. "This puts us in a very awkward situation," she says.

Alex tries to inch his chair towards the door, but Matilda notices and barks. Octavian moves to block the door.

"Alex, are you familiar with the word "scapegoat"?" Reyna asks.

"No." Actually, Alex has been using the word "scapegoat" since he was seven, but the flat-out denial trips Reyna up for a few seconds.

"It's someone who's blamed for an event, whether or not it was their fault," Octavian says.

"You are to be our scapegoat," Reyna says.

"No," Alex says. "I didn't have anything to do with this."

Octavian smiles, and it's utterly terrifying. "What made you think you had a choice?" He opens up a tiny vial of the most menacing water Alex has ever seen and throws the contents into Alex's face.

The water burns as it makes contact with Alex's skin. Things start to get foggy and distant, but he can still see Reyna's fist approaching his face until it hits his jaw.

There's a burst of pain, and then—

Black.

* * *

A boy wakes up at Wolf House with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He's extraordinarily handsome, with golden-blond hair and piercing gray eyes. The only jarring note about him is the two braces on his legs.

Lupa names him Henry and a floating holographic owl appears over his head soon after. Henry doesn't know what that means, but based on Lupa's reaction, it's not good.

He trains with the wolves, learns their ways, and—though he has no idea why—hates them all.

* * *

_You are the son of Minerva_, Lupa says one day.

Henry looks up from taking off his braces. "What?"

_The owl that appeared over your head is the sign of your mother, Minerva._

"I thought you said Minerva was a virgin goddess?"

_There are other ways for children to be conceived._

Henry suddenly realizes he really doesn't want to have this conversation. "Okay, then. I'll just be—"

_Minerva does not have children often. They are brain-children, in the same way she is also a brain-child, springing into being from the mind._

"Oh." It occurs to Henry that this is more ridiculous than the whole "Roman gods exist and you're one of their kids!" thing. "Is that why I don't remember anything before I showed up here? I, like, sprung into being as a teenager?"

_No._

"Then why can't I remember anything?"

_There is a river in the Underworld, called Lethe. It is the river of forgetfulness. You must have come into contact with the water, which erased your memories._

This actually kind of pisses Henry off. Like, who hated him enough to actually erase his entire previous life? Was he Hitler or something? He must have been, because he refuses to believe that he just happened across the river and decided to take a swim. "Can I get them back?"

Lupa shrugs and runs off.

Henry hates when she does that.


	13. Part 2: 5

"Alex, can I talk to you in here for a second?" Reyna asks.

For a moment, Alex is speechless. Reyna never calls him Alex, and she's never been this nice to him. Ever. Normally, it would have been: "You! In here! NOW!"

He follows her into her office, where—much to his surprise—Octavian is waiting. Reyna hates Octavian even more than she hates Alex. Alex can see where this is headed, and it's not pretty.

"What do you know about Jason's disappearance?" Reyna asks.

Was he being interrogated? Really? "Um…it happened."

Reyna's gold dog, the one Alex calls Earl, snaps at him. "Oh, and I wasn't involved."

Earl and Matilda (the silver one) growl, but they don't attack. Reyna, taking note of the dogs' behavior, nods. "This puts us in a very awkward situation," she says.

Alex tries to inch his chair towards the door, but Matilda notices and barks. Octavian moves to block the door.

"Alex, are you familiar with the word "scapegoat"?" Reyna asks.

"No." Actually, Alex has been using the word "scapegoat" since he was seven, but the flat-out denial trips Reyna up for a few seconds.

"It's someone who's blamed for an event, whether or not it was their fault," Octavian says.

"You are to be our scapegoat," Reyna says.

"No," Alex says. "I didn't have anything to do with this."

Octavian smiles, and it's utterly terrifying. "What made you think you had a choice?" He opens up a tiny vial of the most menacing water Alex has ever seen and throws the contents into Alex's face.

The water burns as it makes contact with Alex's skin. Things start to get foggy and distant, but he can still see Reyna's fist approaching his face until it hits his jaw.

There's a burst of pain, and then—

Black.

* * *

A boy wakes up at Wolf House with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He's extraordinarily handsome, with golden-blond hair and piercing gray eyes. The only jarring note about him is the two braces on his legs.

Lupa names him Henry and a floating holographic owl appears over his head soon after. Henry doesn't know what that means, but based on Lupa's reaction, it's not good.

He trains with the wolves, learns their ways, and—though he has no idea why—hates them all.

* * *

_You are the son of Minerva_, Lupa says one day.

Henry looks up from taking off his braces. "What?"

_The owl that appeared over your head is the sign of your mother, Minerva._

"I thought you said Minerva was a virgin goddess?"

_There are other ways for children to be conceived._

Henry suddenly realizes he really doesn't want to have this conversation. "Okay, then. I'll just be—"

_Minerva does not have children often. They are brain-children, in the same way she is also a brain-child, springing into being from the mind._

"Oh." It occurs to Henry that this is more ridiculous than the whole "Roman gods exist and you're one of their kids!" thing. "Is that why I don't remember anything before I showed up here? I, like, sprung into being as a teenager?"

_No._

"Then why can't I remember anything?"

_There is a river in the Underworld, called Lethe. It is the river of forgetfulness. You must have come into contact with the water, which erased your memories._

This actually kind of pisses Henry off. Like, who hated him enough to actually erase his entire previous life? Was he Hitler or something? He must have been, because he refuses to believe that he just happened across the river and decided to take a swim. "Can I get them back?"

Lupa shrugs and runs off.

Henry hates when she does that.


End file.
